A slight breather

After a huge test last Tuesday, I have a long break from tests. 1 whole week. So Friday I packed up my bags and headed up to Austin for a relaxing birthday weekend. Did some riding, some running, and studying. Hung out with some friends, Sarah made me some awesome french toast, and watched the movie UP. If you want to see a good movie I would recommend seeing it. Like usual, the weekend went by too fast and before I knew it I had to head back to Houston. That's about it for now. I will try to update more seeing as school is kind of winding down until Thanksgiving.

The B Team

There is a saying in dental school. It goes like this. The people who make are in the highest grades in the class will make the worst dentists. The people who do average and in the middle of the class make the best dentists, and the students with the lowest grades in the class make the most money. I would agree, as there are several people in my class that I wouldn't even let them get close to my mouth. So with that, I would like to introduce you to the B Team. This is my group of friends that I study, eat, and occasionally enjoy a laugh about how stressful school is. I would let any one of them work on my mouth and considering that we will start practicing on each other before seeing real patients, I will definitely choose one of them.

Cinco Ranch Sprint/Olympic Triathlon

After several months off from racing, I was looking forward to a fast, fun race at the Katy Triathlon, making my presence known in Houston (jk). I wasn't really training for the race, as it is part of my build up to the Houston marathon, but I did want to do well. There were maybe only 15 people in the invitational wave, and of those maybe 3 were going to make the race competitive. Well, it started off with a good swim. I exited top 5, passed 1 or 2 people in transition and headed out on the bike. Well, this is were things went wrong. A cop was out front and signalling us in one direction, too bad it was the WRONG direction. I was in 2nd and gaining on 1st place when an cop car pulled up and told me I was going in the wrong direction. So, knowing that I was out of the running for top place I turned around and started to get back on the right course. After a 10 mile detour I was back on track. I was mad, but it was a beautiful day and it's rare that I have enough time to get outside and ride, so there was no way I was just going to give up and stop. Besides, i needed to get my tempo run in. The run was good, finishing in 16:46, but man today I am feeling it. This was my first brick workout in probably 6 weeks. Its interesting, since starting school, I know my endurance has been shot to, well you know. But my speed has, if not stayed the same, maybe gotten better. I will dive into this more in my next blog.

Dental School Stats

Avg GPA = 3.74 out of 4.0
Avg DAT = 19.1 out of 30
Amount of TX applicants: 871
Amount Accepted: 263
Houston dental school interviews: 144
Letters of acceptance sent out: 97
Class size: 84
The university of Texas dental school at Houston had the highest avg GPA and DAT scores out of the other two dental schools in Texas.

Week 9 Updates:
- This week we had a lab practical Monday, Histology quiz Tuesday, Microbiology
Test Thursday, Biochem quiz Friday.
- I have given up all sense of a biological clock. Yesterday I took a nap from 5-7. woke up, ate dinner and studied until 11. Hopped on the trainer for 45 min. Went to bed sometime around 1:30, woke up at 6.
- I have aprox 4 cereal bowls scattered randomly around my apt
- I have worn the same scrubs for the past 2 days, no one has said anything to me yet.
- I am starting to notice that I am constantly in a state of elevated stress.
- During the week i am in 1 of 2 places: school or studying at home
- Training is good for the marathon, surprisingly.
I cannont wait for the weekend to start. The only time I have a chance to breath and catch up on sleep, studying, and relax.

One Year Ago

Exactly 1 year to the date I was in Kona, participating in the ironman. At the time, I don't think I realized how fortunate I was to be there. Doing an ironman is one of the most amazing things that a person can do. Watching the finishers cross the line really brought that back to me. Especially as I watched Chrissie Wellington cross the line. The raw emotion was so strong, it felt like I was there watching her at the finishline. I believe everyone that finishes feels that same wave of relief, gratitude, accomplishment, and pure happiness. Watching the finishers today brings back that feeling, and how much has changed since that day. I finished Kona 1 week before I had my interview for dental school. I had no idea if I would get into school or not, and no idea what the next year would bring. This summer I was pre-occupied by school, moving, and camp which left little time for structured training. Its amazing how much can change in a year. Moving to Houston, living apart from Sararh, will be worth it once I graduate. Now that I am in school, there is even less time for long distance. It's interesting. I still have my speed, and am working on shorter, faster distances, but my endurance is the first thing to go. For example, today I went and did a group ride. The group did a 30 mile loop, I and did a second loop by myself. The first loop I felt great and strong, no problems. Then almost right at 2 hrs, my legs turned to jello and felt like I had bricks attached to them. Anyways, I don't know if its being in school and unable to train as much as I used to or just watching the Ironman, but I have decided I definitly want to do another ironman. Since this is the only summer that I will have off completely from school, I am thinking about signing up for the Vineman, which would be Aug 1, 2010. I chose this mainly because the date works perfect, but also because I think that there is can be too much emphasis placed on doing an Ironman labeled event. This race boasts that it has a personal touch and that it is tailored to the athlete (max of 500 aprox), whereas the Ironman races have upwards of 2000 racers and is fairly commercialized. Registration opens Nov 1, and I would have from June to August to commit to training with no full time work or school. Now, I just have to convice Sarah that doing an ironman is safe, if you train right and watch your hydration, like I didn't do last year during the race. Congrats to all Ironman finishers from Austin.

Missing Video

Ok here is the video, for some reason it did not load up on the last entry.

Welcome To the Jungle

Its a concrete jungle in Houston. Just take away the sidewalks, buildings, and smog and all you would be left with is a constant 100% humidity with temps ranging in the mid 80s. The past week we have had 100% humidity every day with a heat index of around 93. That has made commuting to school not very fun, and I show up every morning dripping with sweat. It probably doesn't help that I run before so that I am already sweating before my bike hits the pavement. This is October, hopefully some cooler weather is coming soon. Well it's week 8, and we are mid-way through the first semester. It has been flying by which is good, I guess. I'm passing all my classes (bonus) and I am really enjoying waxing. I was elected treasurer of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA), and joined a dental fraternity. I did not join any in undergrad but it's more of an organization than a social club in dental school. Besides that its just been study, study, study. I have found that it all comes down to your work ethic in dental school. The most important part is not to procrastinate and that way you get to bed early every night, but I still see people who go out 3-4 nights a week and are up studying all night for the test the next day. Not smart. As a birthday present for Sarah, we got tickets to go see Kings of Leon on Tues (even though I had a Physiology test the next day - going back to work ethic, I had already studied and felt good about the material). We had an awesome time, but I don't know which was better, watching the drunk couple next to us dancing wildly or the actual show. Here is a clip from the concert, its not G and R if that's what you thought from the title. Well, I got another test tom, so it's off to studying.